Copyright 1999 The Seattle Times Company
The
Seattle Times
July 17, 1999, Saturday Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A5; ACROSS THE NATION
LENGTH: 603 words
HEADLINE:
ACROSS THE NATION
BODY:
JUDGE BLOCKS VIRGINIA'S
BAN ON TYPE OF LATE-TERM ABORTION
RICHMOND, Va. - A state law banning a type of late-term
abortion is unconstitutional because it is too vague and infringes on
the right to choose an abortion, a federal judge ruled yesterday. U.S. District
Judge Robert Payne issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the law,
which took effect on July 1, 1998, and outlaws a procedure that opponents call
"partial-birth abortion."
Attorney General Mark Earley said he will
appeal. In the procedure, a doctor delivers part of a fetus, destroys it, then
removes the dead fetus. The law provided an exception to save the life of the
mother but did not make any exception to protect the mother's health.
Payne said the law "infringes upon the fundamental right to choose an
abortion because it imposes an undue burden on that right and because it
contains no health exception and an inadequate life exception."
The law
also is "impermissibly void for vagueness because it fails to provide adequate
notice to those subject to its structures of the conduct it prohibits," he
wrote.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia and a group of abortion
providers challenged the law, claiming it was so broad it could be construed as
banning many types of conventional abortions.
Violation of the law was a
misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $ 2,500 fine. A doctor
also could lose his medical license.
Bans on the procedure have been
blocked or severely limited in 19 of the 20 states where they have been
challenged. Abortion providers have appealed a federal judge's decision
upholding Wisconsin's ban.
Parachutist
found drowned after illegal Yosemite jump
SAN FRANCISCO - A man
illegally parachuted from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, then
apparently drowned after diving into a river to evade park rangers.
The
body of Frank Gambalie III, 28, of Squaw Valley, Calif., was found in the Merced
River on July 7, about 300 feet from where he was last seen by rangers on June
9.
Gambalie was an experienced skydiver and BASE jumper - a person who
parachutes off cliffs or other stationary objects. The acronym BASE comes from
"Building, Antenna, Span, Earth."
BASE jumping is illegal in Yosemite,
punishable by up to six months in jail and a $ 5,000 fine.
5 in pickup racing from police killed in tractor-trailer crash
ROBERTSDALE, Ala. - Five people trying to outrun police were
killed yesterday when their pickup truck crashed into a tractor-trailer.
A bag of what was believed to be marijuana was thrown from the pickup
before the crash, police said.
The accident happened on a rural highway
about 3:30 a.m. Officers pulled the pickup over for speeding, but the driver
sped away. Police estimated the truck exceeded 110 mph at times during the
chase, which covered nearly 20 miles.
Top
gun dealer loses license over domestic-violence case
WASHINGTON -
Federal regulators said yesterday they have notified Bruce L. Jennings, one of
the country's largest distributors of cheap, concealable handguns known as
"Saturday night specials," that his federal firearms license will be revoked
because of a prior conviction on charges of domestic violence.
Without a
license, the Nevada resident could be forced to divest himself of his gun
distributorship, B.L. Jennings Inc., which ships tens of thousands of guns to
dealers each year and has made him a multimillionaire.
Jennings was
convicted in 1985 of a felony for assaulting his then-wife, Janice Jennings,
breaking her jaw.
LOAD-DATE: July 18, 1999
